September 2010

VOL XIV No. 3

AND THE WINNERS WERE
VICTORIA LAKES G.C.-08/05/10: The top three money winners,

Mr. Simon

Simon, Stanford, & Jacobs, were the identical trio that tied for FIRST PLACE in Low Putts at 30 strokes. Bruce Simon topped the moola list with $47 by posting the overall low round of the day, a 76 Gross, that took the Porter Gross & Low Net honors. The Brewster has now lowered his Handicap Index to within easy striking distance of the Blue Tee standard of 9.4 or Less. Peter Stanford announced his return to our tour by taking home 46 bucks in a round that featured a near Hole-In-One on the blind-drawn Par 3, Hole #11. At $43 we list Jim Jacobs, annexing the 2nd spot in both Porter & Net and bolstering his rewards by sharing the designated tweeter on Hole #15 with Chuck Tamburro. The second designated birdie on Hole #7 was claimed with a solo effort by Sweet Swinging Sam Strangis. LOS ROBLES GREENS G.C.-08/12/10: Our very own version of TV's original "Big 3 Golf Show" featured low handicappers Tamburro, Crook, and Sabbe going at it hot & heavy. When the smoke of battle cleared and the final putt plunked Chuck Tamburro's even par 70 took the Super Gross title, however that award coupled with just a quarter share of a birdie payout only netted Mr. Tamburro a modest $21. The big bucks went to Gordon Crook whose 72 Gross score plus 1+1/4 of the humongous $50 birdie pots made for a huge $77 day. Jim Sabbe completed the trio's assault on par by opening with a two-under 32 front nine before posting a 74 Gross and claiming $63 by matching the Crookster's 1+1/4 birdie monies. Bruce Simon and John Moskoff fired identical 78's to share the Porter Gross honors that led to payouts of $39 and $32 respectively. The "Comeback Kid", "Cat" Ballou, wedged in between them for a $36 take home after stunning the Group with his 61 Low Net score. The above mentioned 4-way shared birdie came on the uphill Par 4, Hole #13 incredibly involving the very same "Big Three" pairing and outsider Jim Jacobs who nearly jarred his second shot from the fairway. SIMI HILLS G.C.-08/19/10: Chuck Tamburro cruised to his FIFTH consecutive Super Low Gross win by posting a solid 75 that garnered a huge 81 bucks when added to his 1+1/2 birdie payouts and a tie for Low Putts at just 26 strokes. Gordon Crook stole the remaining 1+1/2 birdie monies, ruthlessly shutting out the remainder of the field who had breathlessly awaited one of their other NINE birdie numbers still left in the hat. Our newest member, screenwriter Maury Hurley showed his golfing prowess while competing in his very first competition by dipping into the pots for $33 with his Porter Low Gross winning score of 79 and that tie with Mr. Tamburro for the Low Putts title. Not be overlooked was the unusual 3-way tie for the Low Net prize at 67 featuring Marilou Miller, Jim Raymnd, and "Cat" Ballou. BUENAVENTURA G.C.-08/26/10: The cooling ocean breezes provided a welcome relief from the 100+ heatwave in the Valleys as a trio of tour regulars relieved the wager pots of significant portions. The dedication to improving his game has resulted in dividends for Peter Stanford whose 79 Gross led all scoring and accounted for $41 in earnings with FIRSTS in Porter Gross & Partners plus the runner-up spot in Low Net. "Cat" Ballou and Val Mayer each claimed an even 40 bucks for solo blind-drawn birdie efforts. The only designated birdie payout for Hole #17 proved to be a group grope affair when Mike Belson, Marilou Miller, Dick Raguse and Aaron Stanford all showed up to share the $40 award. Mr. Raguse further padded his purse with the day's Low Net, a 64, to pocket some $36.

Continue

GIGS N'STUFF
If you wondered why Chuck Tamburro & Jim Raymond were not at the Buenaventura doings, Chuck took Raymond along as Ground Control for a N.C.I.S Los Angeles aerial shoot that day.

Mr. Hurley

Our travelers include, Joe Cala, golfing in Oregon, but not with Danny Chambers who also was visiting his home state for family reunion time, Bill Lewis going to N.Y.C. to close out his cherished apartment, Mr. & Mrs. Winship, to Hawaii for USC’S football opener, and Val & Nancy Mayer are off to Sandpoint, Idaho for 2 months to relax and check out theater opportunities. -- Our newest member is Maury Hurley, introduced by Mike Belson who met him through the late great Lew Gallo.. Mo was born in Boston and raised in Levittown, N.Y. He began his golf career when in high school when the gym coach picked the first four boys in line to be on the tennis team and the second four for golf. He has been playing ever since. He spent four years in the Air Force, attended University of Minnesota, was a Writer/Cameraman on TV news and documentaries through the Kennedy years, Viet Nam, Civil Rights & Riots, Hippies, Drugs, Super Bowls & Stanley Cups. He started his TV writing career as Writer/Story editor on Miami Vice and has worked steadily ever since. Other credits include Producer/Writer gigs on The Equalizer, Star Trek Next Generation, 2 Baywatch series,Kojak Ariana and a whole bunch more. He’s married, has four children, four grandchildren and he says: "I would like to do it all again, exactly the same, even the bar in Daytona." Of Course!

RULES GUY
As much discussion, of late, has been directed toward our handicapping system, this section will focus on the USGA's system from which our procedures are followed. First, a quote from the USGA: "The purpose of the USGA Handicap System is to make the game of golf more enjoyable by enabling players of differing abilities to compete on an equitable basis. The System provides a fair Course Handicap for each player, regardless of ability, and adjusts a player's Handicap Index up or down as the player's game changes. At the same time, the System disregards high scores that bear little relation to the player's potential ability and promotes continuity by making a Handicap Index continuous from one playing season or year to the next." Going back through the last 10 years of DPTGG records, it's obvious how successful the system is - never has a player hit double digits in Net wins for a yearlong season, while we regularly have from 2 to 4 players in Porter Gross and Super Gross winning between 10 and 26 tournaments. Our system is somewhat unusual, in that we accept and use scores only from DPTGG league play, (which may account for a few more frequent wins for a player who is improving through play in other venues), but as the data show, the number of winners is far more spread out, and the number of individual wins far less frequent per player. There are intricacies to the system that I'll describe more fully next month, but the nutshell of the system is that after adjusting for the difficulty of the courses played, the lowest 10 of the player's last 20 rounds are used to measure the player's "potential ability." This is done through the indexing system, which is the adjuster for course difficulty, and a final multiplication factor of .96, which takes those good scores and adds .04 worth of potential, (to insure that you almost never feel as if you've played as well as you can) - back next month with more!